Staff perceptions of mental
wellbeing support in New Zealand veterinary practices.
A BVN student project
Student: Steph Hunt, Bachelor of Veterinary Nursing student
Supervisor: Laura Harvey, RVN, BSc, PG Cert Vet Education, MSc Adv Prac Vet Nursing, He Papa Tikanga
The project.
• Mental well-being of employees = important.
• This is critically evident in the veterinary sector.
• Overworked, underpaid, and under-resourced workforce
Mental health
Mental wellbeing Self-care
Resilience
Why?
• What we already know? Mental wellbeing is an important issue within the veterinary sector.
• High levels of mental health concerns
• Compassion fatigue
• Stress
• Burnout
• What we need to know? How are employers supporting the
mental wellbeing of their staff and do staff perceive this support to be effective?
How?
• So – how do we help? To do that, we first need to know the answer to some key questions.
• Bachelor of Veterinary Nursing student Steph Hunt, as part of her final year project, wanted to find those answers.
How?
• Online anonymous survey to all veterinary professionals working in clinical practice in NZ
• Questions on:
• What wellness and mental wellbeing support they currently have access to
• What support they want to see
• How important the issues on mental wellbeing are to them and management
Results - demographics
Results
We will look at some of the data across four main themes - Work environment
- Workload - Wellbeing - Support
Results – work environment
Do you regularly receive your full
lunch break? Do you have regular opportunities for toilet and snack breaks?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Always Mostly Sometimes Rarely Never
Percent
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Always Mostly Sometimes Rarely Never
Percent
Results - workload
Are you PHYSICALLY exhausted at the end of your working day to the point where you are unable to undertake sports or hobbies?
Are you MENTALLY exhausted at the end of your working day to the point where you are unable to undertake sports or hobbies?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Always Mostly Sometimes Rarely Never
Percent
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Always Mostly Sometimes Rarely Never
Percent
Results - wellbeing
Have you ever experienced mental distress in relation to your work?
Have you experienced what you
consider to be “compassion fatigue”, emotional exhaustion” or “burnout”?
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
No Yes
Percent
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
No Yes
Percent
Results - support
Does your practice actively seek to advise you on support available or
check-in regarding staff mental distress? How do you rate the support provided at your clinic for mental distress?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
No Yes
Percent
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Excellent Good Satisfactory Poor Very Poor
Percent
What works and what do
veterinary
staff want?
What does this all mean?
Most people enter veterinary work to care for animals...so...taking the 'human factor' out of the equation...
1. Research in human medicine shows that increased workload has a direct impact on patient mortality – there is no reason to think this is any different in veterinary medicine.
2. A healthy, happy workforce is a productive one – there are business (financial) reasons for improving the current situation